PHARMACY

the science that deals with the collection, preparation, and standardization of drugs and medicines. Pharmacists prepare and dispense the medications prescribed by physicians, dentists, and veterinarians. References to pharmacy have been found throughout history. Special groups of physician-priests in ancient Egypt prepared remedies in the temples, and in Greece and Rome and sometimes in Europe (during the Middle Ages), the role of the pharmacist was filled by an herbalist, who supplied the physician with the raw materials for the medicines. The Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science, founded in 1821, was the first college of pharmacy in the United States. Similar schools were soon organized in Europe, but universities began to include pharmacy courses in their curricula. The course of instruction for pharmacy was increased from four to five years in 1960; it includes two years of basic training in the arts and sciences, followed by advanced and specialized courses and some business classes. In the United States, pharmacy graduates must be examined and licensed by the state government. The growth of the pharmaceutical industry has meant that pharmacists themselves are no longer required to prepare many of the prescriptions called for by the physician. They do continue to have responsibility for formulating, storing, and providing correct dosages of the prescribed medicines. The laws of the pharmaceutical industry are based on the national pharmacopoeia, a treatise that outlines the purity and dosages of numerous medicinal products. Most countries have their own treatise, but an international pharmacopoeia was published beginning in the 1950s by the World Health Organization (WHO) of the United Nations. A number of organizations specialize in pharmacy. Among them are the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain and the American Pharmaceutical Association, both founded in the mid-19th century. the science and art concerned with the preparation and standardization of drugs. Its scope includes the cultivation of plants that are used as drugs, the synthesis of chemical compounds of medicinal value, and the analysis of medicinal agents. Pharmacists are responsible for the preparation of the dosage forms of drugs, such as tablets, capsules, and sterile solutions for injection. They compound physicians', dentists', and veterinarians' prescriptions for drugs. The science that embraces knowledge of drugs with special reference to the mechanism of their action in the treatment of disease is pharmacology. Additional reading Edward Kremers, Kremers and Urdang's History of Pharmacy, 4th ed., rev. by Glenn Sonnedecker (1976), provides comprehensive coverage. Modern studies of practices in pharmacy include William E. Hassan, Jr., Hospital Pharmacy, 5th ed. (1986); Thomas R. Brown and Mickey C. Smith (eds.), Handbook of Institutional Pharmacy Practice, 2nd ed. (1986); Paul Turner, Alan Richens, and Philip Routledge, Clinical Pharmacology, 5th ed. (1986); Joseph P. Remington, Remington's Pharmaceutical Sciences, 17th ed., edited by Alfonso R. Gennaro et al. (1985); D.R. Laurence and P.N. Bennett, Clinical Pharmacology, 5th ed. (1980); Goodman & Gilman's The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics, 9th ed. by Joel G. Hardman and Lee E. Limbird (1996); and T. Donald Rucker (ed.), Pharmacy: Career Planning and Professional Opportunity (1981).